Pushed to Be Omni-Competent
Ed Dobson
When it comes to people's expectations of the pastor, it's better to promise less and deliver more.
— Ed Dobson
I knew a pastor of a large church who tried to control all aspects of his church. He worked seventy and eighty hours a week: he preached, did all the visitation, oversaw the staff, and micromanaged virtually every detail of the church's ministry.
I met with him from time to time over the course of a year and a half. He always had the same complaint, "I'm tired. I'm worn out. There is something flawed about ministry in a megachurch setting. It shouldn't be like this." I was saddened, but not surprised, when I learned that he had fallen into serious sin that cost him his ministry.
In spite of his fatigue, his impatience with others, his constantly being behind, his feeling of distance from God, he had been insistent on remaining in control of all aspects of the church's ministry. Why? Part of it, no doubt, was a result of his own psychological needs.
But a large part of it was due to modern church culture, the same culture that pressures all pastors. Over the last few decades, the expectations of congregations have been raised enormously. Whereas earlier we were expected to study, preach, and visit, now we're supposed to administer a variety of programs, raise enormous funds for larger and larger facilities, and counsel people with problems a previous generation never even heard of — all the while preaching as good as the latest televangelist.
Most pastors go into the pastorate with dreams of being able to do it all. That dream matches perfectly with the increasing demands of the congregation. The pastor, though, discovers quickly that he or she can't do it all. The expectations to keep up the image of the omni-competent ...
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